Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Epic

Venue Overview (8.00)

The only significant difference between the Teppanyaki on the Epic and the Teppanyaki eateries found on other Norwegian ships is that the Epic’s dining area is a much larger. They share the same concept. The chef prepares food on a griddle right in the dining room, surrounded by an audience of diners. They toss their utensils around, generally making a lot of noise while cooking, all for a cover charge of $20.

The menu is the same: appetizers are edamame, miso soup, and seaweed salad. For main courses you can choose between different meats and seafood, or a combination of both. For dessert, you get the same green tea cake with green tea ice cream as on other Norwegian ships.

The restaurant’s decor is relatively clean and simple, but the room is cavernous — a design mistake, we think, as it results in an uncomfortably noisy and impersonal experience as compared to the smaller Teppanyaki restaurants found on other Norwegian ships. Norwegian clearly was trying to pack in as many tables as it could into this space, and the result is a warehouse-like ambiance that has a production-line feel. Unlike at the Teppanyaki restaurants on other Norwegian ships, this is not an intimate experience.

Lunch / Dinner

Teppanyaki’s menu is the same as on other Norwegian ships and similar to what is found at teppanyaki chains on land. On the Epic, the edamame are already peeled, which is much easier to eat, though some patrons may miss the act of popping them from the shell. After the edamame you get miso soup, which was serviceable. The seaweed salad was excellent, but was skimpy with the seaweed and too generous with the iceberg lettuce.

There’s a choice of nine entrees of traditional teppanyaki and combinations. As everything is prepared at the same time and on the same grill, the seafood ended up with a meaty taste to it.

Dessert

Fresh fruit sashimi and green tea cake with ice cream are offered for dessert.

Wine List

Teppanyaki offers two signature cocktails: the wasabi cocktail and a Japanese martini.